Zabel case to be featured on “America’s Most Wanted”

Published 4:44 pm Friday, July 11, 2008

The case involving the young Austin native shot and killed June 15 in South Philadelphia will appear Saturday night on Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted,” where detectives will man phones in hopes of gaining new information for the investigation, according to the police department.

Lead investigators Levi Morton and Bill Holmes will be featured, a spokesperson said, on behalf of Beau Zabel, who police believe may have been killed in attempts to steal his iPod while he walked home from an early-morning Starbucks shift.

Surveillance captured a young man leaving the scene and placing an item in a plant that he returned to pick up. Police say it may have been a gun.

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Cameras didn’t not record the man’s face, but show his white shirt and shoes. Police hope his clothing, as well as his mannerisms, may lead to tips to his identity.

According to the spokesperson, there is no new information in the case.

The Citizens Crime Commission of the Delaware Valley is offering a $35,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest and conviction, according to the Philadephia Inquirer, which said locals have also placed a memorial with stuffed animals and photographs at the crime scene.

Zabel had moved to the city from Minnesota just six weeks before his death to teach for an inner-city program and gain his teaching certificate.

The Inquirer said friends and family have been organizing fundraisers and established a scholarship fund in his honor, including one Aug. 3 to sponsor a runner in the October Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C.

The Beau Zabel Scholarship Fund is hosted at First Farmers & Merchants Bank at 128 Main St., Austin.

Several other cases will also be featured in the show, which will air at 8 p.m.